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Tuesday, June 5, 2012

NO DIRTY LAUNDRY HERE

This is the way we wash our clothes...

I remember when our oldest son Kai came back from serving a
two-year mission in Brazil, that the first thing he did was go down to the
basement and kiss the washing machine.
He had spent two years washing clothes in a bucket.

Well, that’s how it’s done here in Tonga. Washing machines are available (senior
missionaries have them, but not 19-21 year olds), but most people can’t afford
them – they cost about half a year’s salary. Plus, the electricity to run them is very expensive - this is an island, after all. So, the family wash is done in a bucket, like the woman in
the picture at right.

One of the larger missionary quarters.

Young missionaries are housed in what are called missionary
quarters, tiny pre-fab buildings which consist of a ½ bath, shower, sink and
toilet, and then a small sitting room, usually furnished only with a table and
chairs, and a bedroom with two beds. Missionaries are responsible to keep their quarters clean, which
is a new habit for many Tongans, most of whom have never even had a bed to
sleep on, and who have to be instructed in how to make a bed, how to wash
sheets every two weeks, and how to sweep and mop a floor. (When you have a dirt floor, or you
sleep out in a little hut behind the main house, cleaning is not something you
learn to do.) But amazingly, most
missionaries do a very good job at learning to keep their quarters clean, and
their clothes too, by washing in a bucket.

One of the senior missionary couples here, Elder and Sister
Sanders, has the assignment of inspecting missionary quarters (along with about
six other assignments – they stay busy!).
As they entered one a few days ago, Elder Sanders noticed a long
extension cord running from the main room into the bedroom. Thinking that there might be a problem
with the electricity in one of the rooms, Elder Sanders asked, the elders, “Why
do you have an extension cord in your bedroom?”

These are NOT the two elders in the story! But you get an ideaof how they dress, every time they're out of their quarters.

The two Tongan elders just stared at the floor. Apparently they thought they were in
trouble, and they were very reluctant to give any answer. Elder Sanders said, “Look at me. Now tell me, what is that extension
cord for?”

One of the elders finally mumbled, “washing machine.” Elder Sanders did a double-take. Washing machine? He turned to the Tongan maintenance
worker who had accompanied him to the missionary quarters, and asked him to ask
the elders what the extension cord was for. The maintenance worker asked the elders, in Tongan, and then
translated their answer. “Washing
machine.”

Elder Sanders was very confused. A washing machine?
There was the bucket, in the bathroom, with a PVC pipe to use as an
agitator. There was no washing
machine outside the little building.
The cord seemed to stretch from nowhere to nowhere, and suddenly Elder
Sanders got tickled. “Um, I got
some bad news for you folks,” he smiled to the maintenance worker. “Tell these elders that apparently,
someone has stolen their washing machine!” Haha!

As it turns out, the family who owns the land where the
missionary quarters is located has a washing machine, and they let the elders
do their laundry in the washer, provided the elders use their own
electricity. So the extension cord
is used once a week, to run from the family's porch to the missionary quarters. This time the cord did not get put completely under a bed. No harm, no foul. No elders, you’re not in trouble.

This was a perfectly sensible solution, but here in Tonga,
all kinds of options run through your head. You never know what the “rest of the story” might be. When Elder Sanders told this story, he
was interrupted by our mission nurse, who speculated that the elders had tried
turning a fan face down into the bucket, to agitate the laundry! So now we are all promoting the invention
of bucket fans…the next big thing, of course!